Police raid 250 homes in Ankara, detain 165 ISIL suspects

ANKARA

A total of 165 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suspects were detained in Ankara on Nov. 9, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

The Ankara Police Department’s anti-terrorism branch launched an operation with 1,500 officers after arrest warrants were issued for 245 suspects by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Out of the 245 suspects, a total of 165 suspects were detained in simultaneous operations at 250 locations in the Sincan, Etimesgut and Çubuk districts.

Police also confiscated a number of organizational documents and digital materials belonging to the suspects during searches at the addresses.

Separately, police in the northwestern province of Bursa detained some 27 ISIL suspects as a part of an investigation conducted by the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Counter-terrorism police launched simultaneous operations at addresses in the Osmangazi and Yıldırım districts following the arrest warrants, detaining 27 suspects over their alleged ties to the jihadist group.

Among those detained were also Syrian nationals, the agency said.

Meanwhile, another four ISIL suspects were detained in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri on Nov. 8.

According to security sources, police launched an operation in the province after receiving intelligence that Iraqi-origin Abdulkhaleq Abdulqader Ali, who had shared the footage of executing his brother for opposing the jihadist group on social media, illegally entered the country.

Police detained Abdulqader Ali and another three suspects, identified only as Yusuf M., Sabir K. and Mohammed K., for their links to the suspect.

Their proceedings at the police headquarters have been ongoing.

Abdulqader Ali had reportedly shot his brother Abdulkadir Abdurrahman in the head last year after “receiving an instruction from the jihadist group.” He had shared the execution on his social media account for propaganda purposes.

In his testimony, Ali reportedly said Abdurrahman was a police officer in Iraq and confessed that he was ordered to execute him due to opposing views in a show of his allegiance to the jihadist group.

It was revealed that he had illegally entered the country from Syria around 20 days ago and his wife and two children also arrived in Kayseri around two months ago.

In another operation in the Aegean province of Kütahya, police detained three Iraqi-origin suspects allegedly linked to the jihadist group during simultaneous operations on Nov. 9.

Digital materials found at their addresses were also seized by police during the searches.

In addition, police also detained another seven ISIL suspects in an operation in the eastern province of Bingöl on Nov. 9.

Turkish security forces have been involved in a long-running campaign to thwart ISIL attacks.

Since August last year, Istanbul police have carried out over 100 operations and detained almost 1,000 suspects.